Believe
by Meatball42
Summary: Three years later, Parker wonders why she believed him. AU, Post-Second David Job, songfic-ish.


**Author's Note: My first attempt at a songfic, gone slightly awry. This was inspired by the song Who Knew by P!nk, and it was supposed to be one in a shuffle, but I didn't like the idea of only writing for three minutes or so, so I trashed that idea and just wrote a story. Hope you like!**

[*]

For years, Parker had lived alone, worked alone, never talked to any other person beyond the little she needed to conduct business. Then she was hired for a job. It was a little thing, easy for a thief of Parker's abilities, but it promised to be fun. She'd heard of the computer geek and the actress, and there was probably a good reason she'd never heard of the man with the funny hair, but Parker was excited to meet Nate Ford. He'd tried to catch her a few times, in Prague, Paris and Vienna; he hadn't come close, but that was the closest anyone had ever come.

After a while, it wasn't just a fun job, or a fun few jobs with people she respected for their abilities. She'd made… friends. The revelation was startling, but Parker accepted it the same way she accepted everything else. She waited until just the right moment, then she jumped into it with all the abandon of a dive off a building.

It was weird, at first. Parker wasn't sure how to act around her _friends_. With friends, you were supposed to trade recipes and gossip and go shopping, right? Only Parker didn't cook (that was Eliot's job), and she didn't have anything to gossip about (even though Sophie tried, Parker never understood what was so interesting about movie stars), and she hated shopping (why do clothes have to be made by a particular brand anyway?). For a while she pretended to be Alice full-time, until Hardison took her aside to explain it. He'd held her hand and smiled at her and told her to just be herself, and she could have friends and the team would be great. And Parker had believed him.

It was a shock when her new friends became family. It was hard for Parker to believe a conversion actually took place, when there was no one moment when individuals became friends, friends became family. That wasn't how things worked for Parker. An alarm goes off at an exact second; you jump off the building in a single breath. But that's what Hardison said. And even though he was looking right in her eyes, and Sophie said that meant a man was lying, Parker figured that was only for normal people, not her family. Now, though, she wonders if Sophie was right.

Three years later, Parker wonders if she was wrong to believe him. She'd taken Hardison's words to heart, she'd been herself. She'd kissed him when they were stealing the David, and that was being herself. She could've gotten into the vault other ways, of course, but that way was the most fun. She thought he'd liked it, because he kept talking about it, and that must have meant he was thinking about it a lot, which was good, right?

But she hadn't heard from him again until they met at the exhibit months later. And then, he said he'd find her when the team split up, but he never did. He said he would, and Parker believed him. Maybe that was the problem. After so many years of working alone, she'd believed someone else, and look where she was now. Back to theft, every alarm she dismantled and every code she broke reminded her of him. For some reason, she just wanted to see him again, to hold his warm hand again, have him tell her she was his friend.

Parker had stopped missing the rest of the team about two years ago; she'd left enough people behind that it was easy. But for some reason she just couldn't forget the look on his face when they turned away in the airplane hangar. The sad, longing expression seemed to be burned into her mind, even though Parker had jumped off dozens of building trying to leave the memories on the top. It had always worked before. But then she dreamed about kissing him on rooftops, and Parker realized she was never going to get rid of these images.

It had been three years since they'd parted, and Parker still kept her eyes and ears open. She didn't have many contacts, but those she did have told her whenever there was a suspicious hack, a particularly successful, high-tech theft. She heard and she went to the city it had taken place, trying to track the man who had left her so conflicted. After everything that had happened, Parker wasn't sure if she would kiss him again or kill him. It was a pretty close race: he'd lied to her, but she couldn't stop remembering him trying to explain a hack or a pop culture reference. He'd let her down, but he'd told her she looked nice in a dress. He'd planted a bug in her shoe to track her, but because of that he'd helped her save an orphanage.

She finally tracked him down to Milan. Some corporate business accounts had been drained, or whatever. Parker didn't care about the specifics, she knew it was him. There'd been an empty orange soda bottle found next to the computer used to hack the company's mainframe. She tracked him down just as he was entering the airport. Parker had managed to get to the terminal before him and was waiting at the entrance to the waiting room. She thought it was sarcastic (or was it ironic? Hardison could have told her). He froze when he saw her, bagel halfway to his mouth and coffee millimeters away from spilling in its cardboard tray.

"You said you'd find me." Parker stated, not allowing any of her emotions leak into her voice. Until she knew what was going on, she wouldn't. "But you didn't. I had to come find you."

"I tried, girl." Hardison dropped the bagel onto the tray. It fell cream cheese side down; Hardison didn't notice. He was staring at her, gaping really, eyes wide as when she'd broken their kiss three years ago. It wasn't until just then that Parker realized how little justice her memories did him. He'd grown out his hair a bit, and it looked surprisingly mature. He was still wearing the same silly clothes that made him look Swedish. Parker remembered him looking at her strangely when she'd said that, but it made sense to her. Then he stepped closer, staring right in her eyes.

"I really tried. But you're tough to catch, you know that?" He smiled a bit, shiny teeth (which Parker had always admired) showing slightly, but in Parker's opinion, the joke only filled half of his face. The other half was being honest, the fervent emotion in his eyes telling her that he was telling the truth, that he really did care.

"Really?" Parker whispered. She didn't realize he'd been close enough to hear until he gave a real smile, one of his grins that hadn't changed at all in three years.

"Believe me," he said, and even though he was looking into her eyes, Parker did.

[*]

**This was supposed to be completely Parker looking back, but I'm a sucker for both this ship and a happy ending, so it turned into an actual story.**

**Tell me what you think!**


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